Still a fair amount of snow in the area, but not enough to climb the south face properly on snow, so followed the trail up the southwest ridge, with a couple deviations onto or away from snow. We got a crack o' noon start, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was partly cloudy by evening and Rainier was buried, but we could see Adams, Baker, and Glacier.

I wasnt really intending to make a summit attempt, but once I made it to Commonwealth Basin it was just too tempting. Having never been in the area before, I followed some skiers tracks heading up the SW aspect of the mountain. It appears now that I picked the wrong line for a day that I neglected to bring crampons. The gully I was in soon turned to avalanche scoured 45 degree ice and the softball sized chunks of ice whizzing by my head convinced me it was time to go home and try another time.

Nice quick easy hike in, and great scramble up to the summit! As soon as I found the boot path turn off, I found a rocky gully and just started scrambling up the rock all the way to the summit. Very nice class 3. No views on top though which was a bummer. Tried the NW ridge in an attempt to summit Lundin next. I'm gonna go ahead and say that was not a good idea. The route runs into cliffs pretty quickly leading to steep class 3 on loose rock followed by your choice of crappy loose class 3 gully, bush whacking, or 100+ foot class 4 rock face. I went down the class 4 which was sketchy but the rock was solid. After I got down I decided to save Lundin for a day when I would actually get some views. Great scramble though! It's one I'd happily do again.

Scrambled up SW face from Red Lake after enjoying blueberries on abandoned Commonwealth Basin trail. Found a few centimeters of snow and drying flowers on the summit for Monika. Marveled at goat tracks in the summit snow and 3 red tail hawks doing acrobatics around the mountaintop. Snow was sparse and only on the top 30m of the mountain.

It was my first time on these peaks and I didn't do much research so route finding was a bit of a trick. After Kendal I jogged back down to the junction and then made my way over to the Lundin-Red saddle. I tried my luck on the northwest ridge but it was too gnarly so I found a nearby couloir and climbed up very near to the summit before deciding that the loose, down-sloping rock was too risky. Pieces were coming out and falling all around me. I backtracked to the small lake shelf and followed the standard route up to the summit.

We summited in the clouds and just before dark so there wasn't alot to look at. Fun little scramble and close to Seattle as a bonus. We kind of just picked our way up the face but found more of a boot path on the way down.

I was in Seattle this week so Matthew and I hit up Red Mountain on Saturday morning. Left the trailhead at 6:30am, summited in 3 hours, and was back to town by lunch time. There was a thin glaze of ice on the top 1-2 hundred vertical feet that made progress through the talus slow and slippery. After a couple of good falls I finally put on the microspikes which made forward progress much easier and faster. Matthew was wearing boots with a much stiffer sole so he was able to edge better. Nevertheless we both wore spikes for the descent and we both took a couple of spills. I topped it off with a "perfect-10" tumbling face-plant near the bottom of the scramble - but I wasn't done yet, maximizing my bruising by slipping on a wet root on the lower trail. All in all a good workout, beautiful WA scenery, and a great day in the hills.

This sure doesn't feel like 10 miles roundtrip- the bulk of the trail is really in great shape, and passes fast. The ascent from the pond to the top of Red is pretty loose, and it's very easy to lose the trail on the way up, although there really isn't a wrong way to the top. Two words of advice- stay as close to the ridge on climber's right (south) as possible, and BRING A HELMET. If you're alone, you may not need it, but if anyone is above you, you'll wish you had one!

Rainier loomed large today, and was very beautiful. Adams was visible, as was everything else in the area. We were lucky enough to see the views before the skies opened up.

(And we looked all over for the register- couldn't find it anywhere...)

"As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls."
--M. Cartmill